Because the city of Los Angeles cannot get its stuff together to build a stadium to attract a franchise, it has left what few teams that actually "need" a new home scrambling to find a desperate city to use as leverage. San Antonio has to know it's getting played.

Jerry Jones is powerful enough that even in death he would stop any franchise from making San Antonio it's home. As far as Jerry Jones sees it, San Antonio is his, and no string of playoff-less seasons will ever stop that.

When the New Orleans Saints briefly re-located to San Antonio in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there were all sorts of speculation and reports that team owner Tom Benson wanted to move to the Alamo Sucker City That would have meant three NFL teams in Texas, and zero in Los Angeles.

While Jerry smiled and said he would be fine with an NFL team in S.A., he never meant it. Jerry wants a team in Los Angeles, and not another franchise 220 miles down the road that could potentially eat in his market. How the NFL is this big, this powerful and this profitable without a team in this nation's second largest market speaks to the encompassing popularity of the league.

At the time, Jerry gleefully went along with the NFL's plan to dump money into the aging Superdome as part of the plan to rebuild New Orleans. Secretly, however, both he and other powerful NFL execs fully expected the plan to fail, and that the team would move to L.A.

But the Saints, thanks to head coach Sean Payton and QB Drew Brees, actually "got good", won a Super Bowl, and now are one of the league's most successful franchises. Good teams don't move.

Meanwhile, just in case Oakland is not serious about this spending, the Raiders show a little flesh to the city of San Antonio with the idea that maybe - just maybe - they will get lucky. Don't worry, Jerry will never allow S.A. to get that lucky.

02/26/2013

Since certainly it can't be the player's fault, and God knows it ain't the GM, we have figured out that the problem for the 2012 Dallas Cowboys' defense is actually the scheme.

According to Dallas Cowboys head coach Jerry Jones, part of the problem the Cowboys had on defense in 2012 is not a 3-4 but the type of 3-4 Rob Ryan operates. There was too much of it.

"Where we fundamentally came down with Rob is that his philosophy is about multiple scheme," Jones told Mr. Clarence E. Hill jr. of the Star-Telegram. "I think you have to skinny it down. Philosophically, I don’t think Rob believes in that. And it’s not something that happened and all of a sudden at the end of the year we had a problem. I think Rob will tell you we had long visits about this in the off-season last year that there was too much scheme. He tried to cut it back and he did skinny it back, but it’s still a lot.

"This is no revelation we had after we went 8-8. This was after the year before’s 8-8. We just didn’t feel like at the end of the day Rob could skinny it back enough to our satisfaction that we could make plays."

The problem was turnovers. The Cowboys' defense didn't generate enough of them. The rub is they are too busy in their own heads rather than just playing fast. According to this story by Mr. Hill, "Since the beginning of the 2007 season, Dallas ranks only 24th in turnovers. It has averaged 23.8 per season in that span, including a franchise-low 16 in 2012 under Ryan."

If this sounds familiar it's because it is.

You may not recall but during the 2008 season, the second year under then head coach Uncle Wade Phillips and his 3-4 scheme, the team fell apart late by losing three of their last four. In December of '08, Wade said he was going to simplify the defense so his players could just react and play fast.

But in 2009, when the team finished 11-5 and won a playoff game, it wasn't a problem.

Now we are in 2013, and the team apparently was unable to simplify this scheme enough so they just scrapped the whole thing and embraced the 4-3 under new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.

Let's see ... another losing, non-playoff season for the Dallas Cowboys and a free agent head coach like Sean Payton.

Payton has not been allowed to coach since he was suspended by the NFL because of the whole Bounty Gate mess. Just a little misunderstanding.

Dallas Cowboys owner/GM/president/scout/assistant coach Jerry Jones has always had a soft spot for Payton, who always had a soft spot for Tony Romo because both are Eastern Illinois grads. Payton was with the Cowboys as a member of Bill Parcells' staff from 2003 to 2005.

The Saints hired him as their head coach in 2006 and in that time the Saints have gone 62-34, including a Super Bowl in the 2009 season.

Payton currently lives in the greater FW/d area, but where a head coach lives has zero to do with anything.

Will the Cowboys dump Garrett to hire Payton? Probably not, but it is Jerry so you can't rule it out.

This means that linebacker and Saints stud Jonathan Vilma is eligible to play immediately for Los Saints in their opener against RGIII and the Washington Dan Snyders.

Vilma, however, is injured and probably won't play.

Of the four - defensive end Will Smith, linebacker Scott Fujita of the Browns and current free agent defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove - Vilma is easily the highest profile player. To have him back is a major score for the Saints.

The reversal of these suspensions does not include Saints head coach Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis. They still have to sit and watch.

Can this new ruling be changed? Yes. Goodell has the power to enforce discipline if there is evidence to say that there was intent to injure beyond just the performance pool.

I have been of the opinion that having Goodell exercise as much power and discipline as he does has been a good thing for the NFL. The players may hate him, but he has made cleaning up the image of his product a priority and there have been positive results. In a system like this, having a dictator is not necessarily a bad thing.

Goodell's decision to suspend these players, however, went a bit too far. Suspend the leaders, and fine the hell out of the players.

05/24/2012

The bruises and black eyes from North Texas' first attempt at hosting a Super Bowl should be about faded, so it may time for the powers that be to meet with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about trying for another Super Bowl bid.

The last time Reliant Stadium hosted a Super Bowl was 2004, when Janet Jackson had her wardrobe malfunction.

According to this story, Houston is planning to do something with the Astrodome, which still sits idle across the way from Reliant Stadium. That facility would likely be used in conjunction with Reliant Stadium.

The last time Houston had this event everything went fine, but Houston's problems are the same as North Texas - too spread out, you need a car to get from your hotel bedroom to your hotel bathroom. That's just Houston.

Houston has bid for other Super Bowls but missed.

As much of a fiasco as the first Cowboys Stadium Super Bowl experience was, you would think the NFL would never again return to Arlington, Texas again. Given the 100,000 seat potential of Cowboys Stadium, and the power Jerry wields within the NFL, chances are good the Super Bowl will come back one day.

Now that Houston is going for one, the time is coming for FW/d to try again soon.

05/02/2012

How former Southlake Carroll Dragons QB Chase Daniel is on an an NFL roster, let alone listed as the primary backup behind Drew Brees in New Orleans, remains almost as mystifying as the crop circles.

Chase Daniel is listed at 6-0, which means I am roughly 7-foot-2. But good for him, the power of positive thinking, and being a pro. These traits can get your far. Can't hate, even though he attended Missouri Junior Technical College.

* LB Jonathan Vilma is out of for the year* DE Will Smith gets four games* DE Anthony Hargrove, who is now with the Packers, gets eight games* LB Scott Fujita, who is now with the Browns, gets three games.

Turns out the NFL didn't call linebacker Jonathan Vilma to tell him directly. What form of communication did the NFL use to tell a player he was out of for the year? The NFL could have used:

Nope. According to Chase Daniel's Twitter account, @ChaseDaniel, "I was standing right next 2 @jonvilma51 when he found out abt his suspension ON @SportsCenter. Really? He has to find out about it that way?"

04/04/2012

Let's see here, Bill Parcells was done after he coached the Jets. Then he was finished after he was done with the Dolphins. Now ... well ... let's see ... the Saints or the Vikings?

The former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys has been flirting with returning to the game for the umpteenth time as either the head guy with the Minnesota Vikings or an interim head coach for Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints.

The Saints thing still sounds viable, but their need for a head coach won't be known until Payton appeals his one-year NFL suspension to Police Commissioner Goodell this week.

Even though Parcells is going to turn 71 this year, never rule out the possibility that he is playing the leverage card.

Parcells can talk out of 14 sides of his mouth, and sound very convincing every time he does it. In recent reports Parcells told people he thought maybe the game passed him by, which it may have. But this guy has the itch as bad as any to have coached in the NFL.

The itch is two-fold.

Itch No. 1) Parcells genuinely cares and loves professional football as much as anyone.Itch No. 2) Parcells genuinely cares and loves cold, hard currency as much as anyone in this game.

At this point in his life, Parcells has very likely made more than enough money not only for himself but for generations of his family to enjoy. Can't fault him for that.

Throw former Dallas Mavericks head coach Don Nelson into this category as well - guys who can't quit because they love the money.

The obvious Fort Worth tie to tonight's NCAA title game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kentucky Wildcats is the award-winning, championship Big Mac Blog. Did you hear The Big Mac Blog was named the Best Blog in Texas? It's very similar to the Nobel Prize, only slightly more important.

As a Kansas grad, I have dutifully picked against my Jayhawks since the Elite Eight. It's my duty to be down on my team right up until the time I think they can win.

I digress; there is a tie between Fort Worth and the Jayhawks.

No. 1, my all-time favorite Fort Worth high school player, Keith Langford, is a KU alum and his little brother Justin Wesley is a sophomore on the team; Wesley transferred from Lamar to Kansas. Both attended North Crowley High School.

Unless center Jeff Withey gets into serious foul trouble, which against UK's Anthony Davis that's a good possibility, don't expect to see Wesley tonight. KU coach Bill Self is down to using about two players off the bench.

Wesley averaged a little under 9 minutes in 37 games this season, and appears as if he will develop into a nice college player.

"We have been lucky enough to do this a couple of times," North Crowley coach Tommy Brakel said; his team has produced Final Four participants Willie Warren (Oklahoma), Langford and now Wesley. "(Wesley) is in good situation. He was in a good one at Lamar, but he wasn't incredibly happy and he had the chance to follow his brother's footsteps at Kansas. He defends a little bit and he rebounds and he should develop nicely up there."

Lot of solid hoops in the Langford family tree. Keith played four years at Kansas; Kevin Langford began his career at Cal before he finished at TCU.

Would be really nice to see Wesley get a title, which would allow me the chance to buy more Kansas junk I simply do not need.